


scars tell the story better.

by cerbyphobic



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Adventure, Graphic Description, Horseback Riding, Hunters & Hunting, The Triforce, Traveling, Triforce Switch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-04 07:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerbyphobic/pseuds/cerbyphobic
Summary: Linke doesn't remember much of the time she died. What she remembers best is the tears falling onto her face and the pain from her abdomen. And then she wakes up. Zelda is gone, Ganon too, and she is alone. So terribly alone.





	scars tell the story better.

Chirps of Blue Sparrows woke the leaf pile. Linke sits up suddenly, coughing, hacking and spitting blood. At least. She should be. Her hands come to her abdomen, feeling for the hole that should surely be there. But it is only the raised skin of a scar. She pulls up her tunic and tears fell. Red and raw, the scar was the perfect shape of the Master Sword. She struggles to stand, armor sticking to her joints. The forest was quiet and she didn't like it. She stumbles through the undergrowth, following a sweet scent. 

The cooking pot was filled with sweet honey and even sweeter berries, simmering low, as the woman who tended it added spoons of milk. Linke stumbles forward, falling to her knees. "Oh! Oh dear, oh dear!" The woman came forward, wrapping plump arms around Linke, easily lifting her up. She carries Linke through an open door and lays her on a soft bed. "My love! We have a young woman in need!" Linke fades then, sleeping once more. 

This time, waking up was softer. A gentle cloth against heated skin, and warm stew slowly being fed to her. She opens her eyes and watches the young man pat the sweat from her forehead. She narrows her eyes and tilts her head up. The woman from before, now pouring the sweet honey into jars and closing them with ease. "Is that...is that berry honey?" Linke asks, coughing, but feeling much better. The woman turns. Long red hair braided loosely against her skull, and skin dark, for the high heat and sun of the desert. The woman nods. 

"Yes. My mother made it for me when I was sick, so I thought you'd like some." Linke smiles. 

"Sav'otta." Linke mumbles. The woman shakes her head. 

"Sav'saaba, little Hylian." Linke furrows her brows. 

"Night already." The boy nods, Hylian, like Linke. "What day?" 

"The last day of summer." Linke sits up, fumbling for something, anything. 

"How long have I slept?" It was not for them, it was for her, for Hylia, for anybody who could answer her. She stands from the bed, pulling her tunic over her head. "I apologize, but I have to leave. I need to get to the castle." The woman and boy follow her out and she stands at the edge of the forest. She stares at it for a moment before turning. "Do you have a map I can have?" 

She sits high on the horse they allowed her to take, the black mare still and waiting for directions. She stares at the map and tries to make sense of it. She has no idea where she is or how she got there. But she knows the land outside of this region and that's where she needs to be. So she nudges the sides of the mare and begins a steady pace of trotting. The road was worn and well ridden so it gave her hope that she will meet another Hylian to ask questions. 

She rolls her shoulders, taunt and weightless. The familair weight of the Master Sword was gone and she did not like it. Her hands tighten on the reigns and the mare bites the bit at the uncomfortable feeling. Linke sighs and loosens her grip. She looks to the sky and prays to Hylia. "Oh, Zelda." A sigh. "Ganondorf. What will we make of this fuckery?" Mumbles from another Hylian reaches her and she sits up straight, looking for the source of the voices. 

A cart full of them, young and old, a middle-aged man leading the two working horses. Linke grins and nudges the mare to a gallop. "Excuse me!" The caravan stopped as she approached and she straightened her back and put on her best smile, polite and to the point. "I need some directions," she gestures to the map in her hand, "I seem to be on the exact opposite side of the continent." The children huddle away from her and the man approaches, cautious and his hand on his dagger. 

"Sure." He took the map from Linke and Linke watches the children, smiling softer and with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "You'll want to take this road till this fork and go left from there. A right at the next one and then you'll be out of this region." Linke took the map back and nodded. 

"Alright, thank you." She nudges the mare forward, eyes focused on the map for a while, until the voices died away. Then her eyes watched the road, the map folded neatly and placed carefully in her pocket. She looks to the sky once more but does not pray. Prayer had gotten her nowhere. That was for Ganondorf. Linke did not pray and she will not pray any longer. She did not wait for a goddess to show her the way. She forged her own way. Confidence and determination swelled and overflowed in her being. She urged the mare into a gallop and took off down the path. 

She was going to get home. Whatever it took.


End file.
